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-- WM A R 1+ NE "A considerable portion of the grain trade, however, which originates in this country goes to Canada, so that it is in- ternational in character and therefore subject to the competi- tion of all nations. "An American company, the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Co. is engaged in the grain and package freight business from Duluth to Montreal. This is inter- national trade and is open to all ships. The company has been operating a fleet of ten American steamers, but this year in addition has chartered two Norwegian ships to help in the service. These ships are chartered for a lump sum, the mas- ters providing everything save fuel. The Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Co. was surprised to discover that the sum worked out to a figure 4o per cent less than it costs them to operate their American ships of equal tonnage. The American seaman demands better wages, better quarters and better food. How long do you suppose such a condition is going to last when such a differential exists? Will the capitalist continue blind to his profit, or will he bring over other Norwegian ships to engage in this trade when he real- izes that there is a gain of 4o per cent in operating expense by doing so?" "This question, gentlemen, is one that comes right home to us. An American policy has bred it, and an American policy should remedy it. "This inequality, produced, as I say, by an essentially American policy, should be equalized by the general govern- ment. I would not undertake to say in what manner it should be brought about. That is the business of this com: mission to discover. All that J desire to impress upon you is the fact that it does not concern any one citizen or any set of citizens, but all citizens. "The benefit of wise assistance to our merchant marine would so widely permeate the active industries of the country that it cannot be said that any one interest would be especially benefited. What I meant to say is that the shipowner and shipbuilder will not be the sole beneficiaries. Ship building is an industry which consumes a great many products and fur- nishes employment to nearly every other industry in the country. For one ship yard that is revived a hundred co- related industries are stimulated. "As an example [ will point out to you how the city of Cleveland and vicinity will be benefited by the revival of the shipbuilding industry. "We have in this city firms who make a specialty of the manufacture and sale of the following articles which are used in the shipbuilding trade: steel plate, rivets, rope, block and tackle, nut and bolt machinery, punching and shearing machinery, and all the varied etcetera pertaining to the out- fitting of a ship, including water tight bulkhead doors used in battleships. "It is possible that an entire ship could be built and fully equipped from material manufactured from the raw in this city. I might say that in deciding what is the best thing to be done it might be well to be guided by those policies of other nations which have proved so successful. It is well known that at the beginning of commercial ocean steam navigation in 1838, the United States possessed more steam vessels than Britain. The figures were 193,423 tons for the United States and 74,684 tons for Britain. We can follow this procession of steamers down to 1860 with some show of pride, for in that year the steam tonnage of the United States was 867,937, as against 452,352 tons for Britain. But our ascendancy ends there. Britain a few years before had put her merchant marine into the hands of the Board of Trade where it might be intelligently pushed forward by experts, and she also adopted the general policy of establishing ocean lanes for steam navigation to foreign countries through the aid of liberal subsidies for carrying the mails. Booey EW "Tn ten years she paid $52,000,000 in subsidies to steamship lines--an amount which was very much greater than the original cost of the fleets of steamers employed in the service. This policy exerted a powerful influence in the development of British steam navigation and in the extension of British ship yards. She has pursued that policy so continuously and de- terminedly that she now has 8,535 carriers of 14,193,582 tons. The United States has but 1,200 carriers, and nearly half of these are on the great lakes. Potentially, however, the figures are very much greater. A steamer of equal tonnage is a more convenient vehicle than a sailing ship of equal tonnage, for the ability of a steamer to make quick and numerous trips is greater than that of the sailing ship. The potential tonnage ot the British merchant fleet, which is nearly all steam, is figured at 36,c07,579 tons, aS against 6,003,704 for the United States. De . "OE coutse, all. this shipping is not subsidized; nor is it necessary that it should be. Lanes of trade having been es- tablished to foreign countries by combined mail, and freight carriers under generous stbsidies, trade has simply followed the flag, until now for a remote country to trade with Great Britain has become as natural as the ebb and flow- of the tides. "The riet earnings of Britain's merchant fleet frequently. equal the combined earnings of all the railroads in the United es, The earnings of the British merchant marine, which alculated roundly at $550,c00,000, equal in value the en- vheat crop of the United States. These earnings are to be régarded as part of the exports of Britain just as much so as if théy were a commodity. sam not in favor of aid for an indefinite period of years. ; "Ara in favor of it until American trade lanes have been es- tablished to foreign countries similar to those which have been established for Great Britain--so long and no longer. I have no favorite form of remedy to recommend. I do not care whether: it be by direct subsidy to the ship; whether it be by a difference in the duty which goods must pay when brought t6-this country by foreign ships; whether it be exacted by ton- nage dues; whether a bounty be paid for outward voyages, or whether itybe by one or all of them, so long as the thing is ac- complished. . a "Whatever form of help you deem advisable to give to American ships, I would suggest that such ships as accept the assistance tendered should be compelled to work under certain laws or regulations pertaining to the employment of help, with the end-in view of educating as many seamen as possible, who could be used in times of war or from whom the govern- ment could fill the demand for akle seamen on its ships af war. "IT am not afraid of the word subsidy, nor do I think it a bugaboo, as many of our good people do. "Stop and consider how many hundreds of millions of dol- lars we have invested in ships of war and how many millions are now being expended--for what purpose? To protect a merchant marine that does not exist, and a few hardy mer- chants who, without assistance, are fighting for trade in the camp of the enemy. The Philippine islands, and other islands dominated by this government, will, of necessity, become, sooner or later, great consumers of goods manufactured in this country. Thousands of tons of material will be needed in the construction and maintenance of our great inter-ocean waterway which will soon be under construction. Why cannot some scheme be devised, as a beginning, whereby all such trade must be carried in American bottoms or be compelled tc pay a tonnage differential? Some such scheme must be de- vised by your honorable body, and as patriotic citizens [ think that something ought to be done to revive in this county an in- dustry upon which the integrity of our export trade is ab- solutely dependent."